Dear Queenie,
My husband used to be healthy and active but now he is sick and it weakens him so he can’t do the things he used to do to keep busy and it makes him feel depressed.
He depends on me to keep him busy and I can hardly go out to run errands without him getting even more depressed. We can’t afford for him to go into a nursing home and he doesn’t have any family living near us.
I try to stay busy, but I feel trapped.
Queenie, what can I do?—Depressed wife
Dear Wife,
There are community organisations that offer services like district nursing and home visitation that could give you some relief. You could arrange with one or more of them for home visits for your husband, which would give him someone to socialise with besides you, and then you could use the time they give you to follow some interests of your own.
You could also talk to your husband’s doctor. There might be some medication he could prescribe to relieve both your husband’s physical and mental problems.
